


What Do You Mean The Moat Isn't Good To Swim In?

by PoisonHemloc



Category: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Divergent, Gen, Kuro and the divine child are not the main focus here and she doesn't have any lines so fyi, ft. genichiro running around ashina castle moat like he has nothing better to do, if you're reading this on an app an not ao3 they're making money off my work so. dont., welcome to the everyone lives au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-10-02 00:50:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20454698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonHemloc/pseuds/PoisonHemloc
Summary: Genichiro needs another sword protecting Ashina but the person he has in mind is trying to escape the heat.





	What Do You Mean The Moat Isn't Good To Swim In?

**Author's Note:**

> I am aware the plot is basically nonexistent, future fics might be better. This is really just establishing some character relationships in my everyone lives!au. There may or may not be a second part. I'm a bit of a Leonard of Quirm with naming things but it gets the point across. 
> 
> Thanks to MrsLittleTall who's comment had me eventually need to write this out rather than let it keep running around in my head.

Genichiro Ashina was kneeling, scanning another section of the moat when he saw the Nightjar, perched on a nearby rooftop, not even trying to hide. Forgetting his errand, he stormed across and glared at the ninja, who leapt down once they made eye contact, and had bowed politely.

  
“It’s still spring,” Genichiro snapped; his lack of success so far was already wearing on his temper and the reappearance of a Nightjar watching him did not help.

  
“Lord Isshin did not like being called away from an important meeting because you fell ill from the heat.” He could hear the Nightjar grinning under his mask. “We are ordered to ensure that does not happen again.”

  
“That was more than ten years ago!” The lord leaned down to glare at the ninja through the eye holes in his mask. “It happened _once_.”

  
“Lord Isshin renewed our orders this morning.” Of course Grandfather had, like he did every year. Even if Genichiro had forgotten collapsing from heat exhaustion while training when he was ten, Isshin Ashina would not. Isshin was not a man willing to let that kind of mistake happen twice, regardless of the assurances Genichiro offered. As soon as Ashina began to warm up again each year, one of the Nightjar ninja would begin following him around every time he was outside, on Isshin’s orders.

  
“It isn’t even that hot out yet!” Which was only true near the moat; even the Watchtower Lord Isshin was staying in while Emma made sure his illness was truly gone had become uncomfortably warm. The Nightjar made some noncommittal noise and pulled himself back onto his rooftop perch, leaving Genichiro to glare upwards before remembering the task he had delayed the rest of his morning duties for.

  
He’d started at the Divine Heir’s quarters. Lord Kuro and the other one, the girl who had shown up two weeks ago, were deep in conversation and apparently oblivious to the heat. The shinobi was not present for once; as soon as Grandfather’s recovery had become public knowledge and the Interior Ministry had backed off, he’d spent most of his time waiting at Kuro’s heels. Occasionally he would disappear for a day or two, only to reappear with some item or book Kuro wanted, or when he brought the girl.

  
“If you really need to find him, I’d suggest the moat,” Kuro had said, both he and the girl craning slightly to look Genichiro in the face. She had the same white streaks through her hair that Kuro did. Grandfather probably knew who she was, but Genichiro had not been told; the soldiers gossip was that she was a holy person from Senpou Temple. He dragged his attention away from the mysterious child when the young lord continued. “He doesn’t like the heat that much, so he tends to be near water if I don’t need him when it’s hot.”

  
So now Genichiro was roaming the sides of the moat looking for this shinobi when he’d rather be doing really anything else. He probably shouldn’t have put this off for the month since Emma had found a way to cure Isshin’s illness; Isshin had seemed to know exactly where he was going, looking for the Black Mortal Blade, and had dragged him back into Ashina by his ear, lecturing him about the point where he was taking loyalty to the clan too far, and that that point was somewhere before he had decided to pressure his eleven year old second cousin into accepting him into the Dragon’s Heritage by apparently killing the one retainer the severely reduced Hirata clan had left.

  
Scowling, Genichiro walked to the bridge, trying to ignore the Nightjar unsubtly tailing him from the rooftops. He nodded to the two soldiers on guard duty; both bowed to him before attempting to look busy doing nothing. He had interrupted a conversation but judging by his current luck he’d be heading to a different part of the moat soon enough. Genichiro leaned over the railing to repeat the phrase he’d said too many times that day already.

  
“Shinobi of the Divine Heir, Lord Kuro-” There was a swish, and a small splash, and the shinobi was abruptly on the bridge, the grappling hook set into his prosthetic arm rewinding itself. His facial expression hardly ever changed, but Genichiro believed the slightly narrowed eyes might be the closest the man got to glaring. He was soaking wet; the orange _haori_ was covered in algae and the undyed scarf was dripping. When Kuro had said he would be near water Genichiro hadn’t thought that meant he would actually be in the moat, and wondered for a moment why he had not abandoned the scarf somewhere if he was hot enough to swim in the green, murky water.

  
“Lord Kuro needs me?” It was impossible to tell what he was thinking; he hadn’t even glanced at the two soldiers, one of whom had almost fallen into the moat when he’d grappled up while the other had tried to grab his sword and missed completely.

  
“Lord Kuro said you’d be somewhere near the moat.” Genichiro finished. He swallowed his annoyance at having spent half the morning combing the walkways before finally deciding to check the bridges. “I have a request for you.” The expression did not change; Genichiro chose to ignore the right hand beginning to curl into a fist. “The Interior Ministry stopped their invasion but they are still sending spies into the land. You’ve proven your swordsmanship al- Hey!”

  
He grabbed at the railing; he’d almost thrown himself off the bridge from the force with which he’d lunged, trying to grab the shinobi’s _haori_ as he jumped off the bridge, back into the water. Genichiro looked down and saw a faint orange blur through the algae, swimming towards the castle as the shinobi left for a quieter, harder to reach section of the moat to survive the rest of the day.

  
“...bastard.” Both soldiers were staring at the castle walls as though their lives depended on it. The Nightjar was too far away to have heard the sad excuse for a conversation but looked like he might have been laughing anyway. No one else was around but that wouldn’t matter; both the soldiers and the Nightjar gossiped nonstop. Genichiro’s scowl deepened as he left the bridge and headed towards the main body of the castle. He’d put off meeting with the retainers that morning for this fruitless errand, so now the issues of running a country normally on the brink of both war and famine beckoned.

  
If he focused on the problems of Ashina maybe he could ignore the urge to hunt down the shinobi and cut off his other arm.

Wolf did not pause as he swam away from the bridge. Lord Isshin had already asked him to keep the land clear of any spies that crept in; he wasn’t sure if Genichiro knew his grandfather was roaming the land in a Tengu mask killing any Interior Ministry and Senpou Temple spies he found, but if the younger lord hadn’t heard the rumors and put two and two together he didn’t need another sword carrying out his poorly informed plans.

  
Surfacing for air, Wolf checked his surroundings at this part of the moat and debated leaving the castle for the rest of the day. If he returned to Lord Kuro’s quarters for longer than a few minutes he suspected Genichiro would turn up and while he could abandon the Ashina Lord mid-sentence, he could not abandon his master the same way. He was sure Lord Kuro and the Divine Child wouldn’t need him today, anyway; they were planning the trip to the Divine Dragon since he had gathered the ingredients needed for the Fountainhead Aroma. But where to go besides the castle? The Dilapidated Temple was always noticeably warmer than the surrounding areas, so he couldn’t go there; too many villagers remained in Mibu and too many gunners were around the Sunken Valley to remain in either area if he wasn’t there on purpose, and there was the other snake to keep in mind. Perhaps...

  
Wolf found his old, well worn Buddha statue and concentrated; he would briefly let Lord Kuro know Genichiro had attempted to talk for the first time since he and Wolf had their rematch, and then leave for the now deserted Inner Sanctum of Senpou Temple. Wolf remembered a small waterfall and a large pond present in the area, so even if the Mt. Kongo was too warm he’d have somewhere to cool off where no one would ask him to carry out duties he already had.


End file.
